Preparation

I've always been a firm believer in preparation.

When I first decided I wanted to become a worship leader, I immediately planned my first worship set and the songs I was going to use. I also practiced all those songs on the guitar, since I wanted to use the guitar, rather than the keyboards for leading worship.

How long did I spend practising my first worship set? If I remember correctly, it was for months. I learned more songs as I learned more chords. Then I started playing guitar for worship in cell group. Even though I felt I was ready to lead worship, the cell group kept putting up other people to lead worship, people who didn't really know what they were doing either musically or spiritually. So that just went on for months while I just continued preparing, planning and practicing my worship sets. I did that even though I was not leading worship for my own cell group.

How many people would continue preparing to lead worship if that happened to them?

It was really funny, in the end I finally got to lead worship for a prayer meeting at another church. For 6 months, I led worship for their prayer meeting every week. Suddenly ALL my preparation became useful. Everything I prepared came in useful during those 6 months.

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I had other people telling me that they wanted to become worship leaders. And I always tell them the same thing: prepare one set of worship songs and we'll discuss that. And God knows, many times they would tell me "But I don't know when I will be leading worship!"

I tell them "It does not matter. Prepare first!"

And they never do…

Especially amongst charismatics, some people believe that preparation goes against the leading of the Holy Spirit in worship. It's sad, because it shows that they don't believe that the Holy Spirit will guide them in their preparations. They seem to think that the Holy Spirit is just waiting for the chance to throw some surprises on them to catch them off guard, and if they do not manage to follow the Holy Spirit 100% they will miss whatever blessing the Spirit of God has planned for them for that meeting.

There are two types of preparation that came to mind as I think about worship leaders.

1) Levitical Preparation -

The Levites were set apart for the service of the LORD, to serve at the Ark of the Tabernacle (Num 18:6). They initially started serving from 30 years old onwards (1 Chr 23:3) and that was later changed to 20 years of age onwards (1 Chr 23:24). But one thing remained constant – to be born into the tribe of Levi meant that you were chosen for serving God.

And that also applies to us, as New Testament believers. We are set apart as royal priests onto God (1 Peter 2:9). And just as a Levite knew from birth that he was meant to serve God, and his parents were to raise him up accordingly, so are we meant to serve God. And from the moment of our spiritual birth into the Kingdom of Heaven we should prepare ourselves with that same seriousness and dedication.

2) Prophetic Preparation -

Jewish tradition claims that Samuel set up schools of prophets. They trained people in prophecy and music (1 Sam 10:5-6). By the time of Elijah, these schools were so established that even after Jezebel had killed off many of the prophets, Obadiah could still find 100 prophets to protect (1 Kings 18:4).

For us that refers to specific training we receive for a particular ministry. Is it possible to be effective in serving in worship ministry, for example, without having gone through formal training for it? Yes. But some form of preparation IS necessary.

If even prophets, who learned to speak as they were moved by the Spirit of God (2 Peter 1:21), could benefit from being trained and mentored, how much more us worship ministers?

And the preparation never stops. Even as we step up serve with what we have, God is still continually at work within us. He wants us to get ready for further service.

• Are you serving God on just one music instrument? God may be nudging you to learn another.
  
• Are you leading worship with only a few familiar songs? I am certain God is nudging you to learn more. Why am I certain? Because the Bible doesn't talk about worshiping God with new styles of music or new instruments. But the Scripture DOES tall about singing a new song to the LORD (Psa 33:3, 96:1, 144:9). And if we want to emphasize what the Bible emphasizes, we need to pay more attention to learning and using new songs in worship as well.
  
• Are you limited in your music instrument skill? God may be nudging you to get out of familiar ground, to learn something new on your instrument or just patch up the weaknesses you have.
  
  Quite a lot of keyboardists I know can't play comfortably in all the keys often used for a worship set. If they are using a keyboard that can transpose they may think they are doing OK. Don't be lazy! Just put in the practice and you will get the skills. And you'll make it easier for your worship leader to flow with the Spirit of God and the dynamics of the people during the worship set.

Conclusion:

Get started! If you have not started serving yet, keep preparing. As I learned from my early worship leading experience, your preparation is something God can use. If you are already serving, I hope this post will stir up within you the desire to prepare yourself for the next step in your ministry as well, to keep pressing on to fulfil the work God has planned for you to accomplish in Christ Jesus.

Be blessed!

Who Should Lead?

In a worship team, who should be leading? The worship leader or the band director? The worship leader is the one who leads the congregation. The band director is the one who leads the musicians. So if you look at it that way, the worship leader is the one who should be leading everyone.

Including the musicians.

This is of course a VERY ideal case. In real life, however, sometimes

1. The worship leader is new and doesn't know or understand the flow of worship dynamics; or
2. The worship leader doesn't know the technical aspects of the music, such as how to put the songs in a suitable key for the congregation to sing comfortably.

In such a situation, hopefully the band director will be an anchor worship musician and thus able to provide practical advice and support for the worship leader. If not, we end up with a lousy situation, a worship leader with a spiritual vision for the session (what kind of spiritual fruit should result) and a band director with a musical vision (what he/she wants the music to sound like). If they are heading different directions from the beginning, the chances of unifying the praises of the people are slim to none.

During the practice:

Band directors should just focus on getting the music right. Worship leaders, if you don't know the details of the music, you'll have to trust the band directors on this. On your part, you should tell the band director if the key is too uncomfortable to sing in.

Hopefully, that would not be because your personal singing range is too different from the congregation! Because if it is, then any key comfortable for you would be bad for the congregation, and vice versa. You may then need to think about switching to some other form of ministry, like maybe prophetic singing or evangelistic singing…

During the worship:

At this time, if you are the anchor musician, remember to give space to the worship leader and follow his or her lead. You may be able to subtly nudge the worship leader and musicians the direction you prefer, but that does not mean that you have to, or you ought to, all the time.

Remember: maturity in Christ comes when every member of the Body of Christ participates in the ministry.

Eph 4:15-16 - Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

So what you should aim for is to have the worship leaders able to lead effectively, but with their own individual personality coming through also. We all have our own quirks and preferences. A new worship leader may be able to introduce new songs to the congregation or do things that we can't because it's not congruent with us.

We are to make disciples not duplicates (Matt 28:19). So we need to know what are the essentials, what we should not compromise on, and what are the peripherals, what we can give people room to experiment with and even make mistakes in.

Conclusion:

As I said earlier, in an ideal world the worship leaders should be the real leaders, in both the musical and spiritual aspects. But God has his own plan, journey AND schedule for your church and congregation. I have a decent grasp of both, but if you are stronger at one aspect than another I strongly urge you to team up with people who cover your weaknesses and hold your hand as you grow in experience and confidence.

And if you are called to support others in their growth, don't micro-manage! Major on the majors and take it easy on the minors. And if you aren't sure which is which, you can always just email, right?

Worship Ministry Foundations - Time and People

One thing about ministering to another church, it makes me look again at the foundations of worship ministry. I have to explain again to a new worship team why what I do works, as well as why they sometimes get results even though they don't do everything the way I tell them to.

When they have this understanding they are able to adapt to any changes that happen, because they know the foundations and principles that give them results. And that is what I want for you too, of course!

2 Chronicles 5:13-14 – The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: "He is good; his love endures forever." Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.

Time:

How long has this group, fellowship or congregation been around? The longer it has been around, the more time it has had to build up their unity. And that is something that will be expressed in their worship.

In 2 Chronicles 5:12 (not included above) we read that the musicians involved at the dedication of the Temple were Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun. They were around and serving ever since King David's time (1 Chr 25:1). Solomon started building the temple since the 4th year of his reign, and completed it in the 11th year (1 Kings 6:37-38). And this tells us that Asaph, Heman and Jeduthan were already serving and heading their respective worship teams for at least 11 years.

Of course we can expect some turnover (some musicians would have retired ever since and some new ones introduced). But the fact remains, 11 years is a considerable period of time. Enough to build a unity of heart and mutual understanding that allows them to work well as a team. In 1 Chronicles 25:7, we find that they were sorted out by family groups. That means that even outside of ministry time they were in considerable amount of fellowship with each other.

What this means:

This means that the worship ministry of a long-standing group can do things ineffectively and still experience the glory of God in their worship. However, this ministry may end up thinking that they have results because of their heart, skill, methods or their super-anointing. You can just imagine the books, worship albums and worship seminars that will follow from that!

And if they ever minister at another church and the people there don't respond, they may think it's because the congregation are not true worshippers, not serious about God and all that. The congregation may also end up suspecting that there is something wrong with themselves, why do they not experience the glory of God when the 'anointed', famous worship team from another church comes to minister to them.

People:

As we saw from 1 Chronicles 25:7, the worship ministry was made up of Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their relatives. That is quite a closed group. At the dedication of the Temple, they were joined by 120 priests on the trumpets, another closed group. Once you have a closed group of people who have spent a lot of time together, unity is easy to build.

But what if your church is NOT a closed group? What if you have new believers born-again into your church regularly? What if you have people from other churches visiting or switching over to your church? What if your group is growing, as the LORD desires?

Acts 2:47 – And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (NIV)

That means that you have to discover what is the most user-friendly approach to worship ministry and stick to that, unless you want to alienate the newer people. Your congregation may already be used to your various musical and worship leading quirks, but wouldn't it be better if what you do works not only with them but also with newcomers as well?

This means cleaning up your worship team of any musical distractions. Make sure your drummer can keep time and your keyboardist or pianist isn't doodling or rambling away on the instrument because he or she is bored. Make sure your overall band sound isn't too loud or too full, since the more you play the less they sing.

And most importantly, make sure the congregation always knows where you want them to sing next. I've seen too many lead singers rather than worship leaders, people who are more interested in their own singing rather than leading the congregation. Musicians, you are not exempted. If your worship leaders are not musically inclined or trained, and they have difficulty knowing when to start singing, then you are not doing your job as a worship musician. If you can't even cue in the worship leader, who has some idea of what is going on, how much more lost would the congregation be?

All those tips and pointers I just gave are not new. I have mentioned them before in my emails and posts (and taught in greater detail in my book, of course). If you get good results in your church even in spite of not following these tips, it would most likely because you have a long-standing, closed group. Nothing wrong with that, just remember that what you are comfortable with now may not work should the group dynamics change or if you have to minister in a new congregation, OK?

Be blessed!